January was such a busy month in DC for CurtainUp,
we felt a little reverie might be in order in February. As luck would have
it, the theater-related offerings for the month remind us that there are
all kinds of dreams.

Dreamgirls: Broadway or Bust?

When, in 1981, Dreamgirls commenced the first of its 1,522 performances
on Broadway, it was a decent show rendered great by the work of two incomparable
talents: the staging of Michael Bennett and the singing of Jennifer Holliday.
A revival, currently at the Kennedy Center, will sooner or later (there
are no definite arrangements yet) reach a Broadway stage. Will it be a
dream or a nightmare?

If the critical reception in DC is a reasonable guide (and there is
as much proof that it is as that it is not), the answer is neither. The
consensus (as usual there are exceptions) is that the revival is a mere
shadow of the original. Skimpy in design and lacking in the sort of electric
energy Bennett created seventeen years ago, I suspect it will leave those
(like me) who saw the "genuine article" unsatisfied, and those who didn't
shrugging their shoulders wondering what all the fuss was about. The memorable
role in Dreamgirls is of course Jennifer Holliday's Effie. Here
it goes to B. J. Crosby, late of Broadway's Smokey Joe's Cafe, who
apparently will prove yet again that a strong singing voice, alone, does
not a musical theater star make.

They will keep dreaming at the Kennedy Center until February 15. More
information can be had on the KenCen's website, linked below, or by calling
(202) 467-4600.

The Shakespeare Theatre has tackled Ibsen's unwieldy verse drama, Peer
Gynt, and turned it into an exceptionally stageworthy production. Standing
(with Brand) in sharp contrast to Ibsen's later and more frequently-produced
Naturalist masterpieces (such as A Doll's House, Ghosts and
Hedda Gabler), Peer Gynt is a fantasia in which dream mixes
freely with fact in retelling a classic Norwegian folk tale.

Less well known is the way in which Peer Gynt follows Ibsen's
own life in fact, fancy and even, perhaps, premonition. Peer Gynt was a
man with high aspirations whose life was a journey of self-discovery. His
comfortable home life deteriorated when his family's inheritance was squandered;
he was an outsider in his small Norwegian village. He left home and, among
other "adventures," entered the troll kingdom where he fathered a child.
After the death of his mother, he left Norway and travelled to far-off
places, ending his lifelong journey back where it began, in Norway.

Ibsen also had lofty aspirations. His life began in privilege, in the
small town of Skien in Norway, but his father's extravagance lead to the
family's bankruptcy. A loner, Ibsen moved to another small town where he,
too, fathered a child in an "alien" world. Ibsen left Norway while his
mother was still living -- he lived most of his adult life in Italy and
Germany -- and Ibsen's mother was still alive when he wrote Peer Gynt,
but Ibsen acknowledges that Peer's mother was largely based on his
own. Finally, like Peer, Ibsen returned to his native Norway to spend his
final years.

I would have referred to Peer Gynt as "rarely performed," but
in 1998 that's hardly the case. In addition to the Shakespeare Theatre
version, the east coast will get at least two other Peers this year. David
Henry Hwang has undertaken a new adaptation that will premiere at Trinity
Rep in Providence, Rhode Island this month and New York's Theater for the
New City will unveil an Appalachian version by Romulus Linney. Look out
for a review of the latter in CurtainUp later this month. The Shakespeare
Theatre production runs through March 8. Information by telephone at (202)
393-2700 or via the website linked below.

The Corcoran Gallery of Art has invited an impressive group of major playwrights
to participate in a series of discussions on plays and the theater. These
discussions, all moderated by Michael Kahn, are on Wednesdays at 7:30 P.M.
beginning February 25. The schedule is:

2/25/98

Paula Vogel, Drama Desk and Obie Award winning playwright of
How I Learned to Drive, The Baltimore Waltz, Desdemona,
And Baby Makes Seven and The Oldest Profession.

Christopher Durang, Obie Award winning playwright of Sex
and Longing, For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls, Durang/Durang,
The Marriage of Betty and Boo, Baby with the Bathwater, Beyond
Therapy and Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All to You.

3/25/98

John Guare, Tony and NY Drama Critics' Circle Award winning
playwright of Six Degrees of Separation, The House of Blue Leaves
and the libretto for Two Gentlemen From Verona.

Tickets are available for the series or four individual evenings. Further
information is available by telephoning (202) 639-1770 or through the website
linked below.